Understanding Total Cost Reporting: What your 2026 investment statement will reveal
Understanding Total Cost Reporting: What your 2026 investment statement will reveal
Over the past decade, several changes have been made to help investors better understand how their portfolio works and the fees involved in investing. The next phase of transparency is coming in January 2026 with the implementation of Total Cost Reporting (TCR).
You’ll likely recall earlier reporting improvements (known as CRM2) that covered advisor fees. Well, TCR builds on that showing you the full cost of investing. The goal is to provide a clearer, dollar-based breakdown of all ongoing investment costs, including fund-level expenses that were not visible before, helping you better understand the value you receive in return.
As an advisor, I strongly support transparency. The more my clients understand what’s going on with their portfolios and what they’re paying for, the stronger our relationship is. Some of the benefits I expect for my clients include:
- seeing the total cost picture to evaluate advice and performance together
- assessing whether costs align with income and longevity planning in retirement
- visibility across personal and business portfolios to make strategic investment decisions
Here’s how TCR builds on the foundation of CRM2:
CRM2 (Current) | TCR (Coming 2026) | |
Purpose | Shows what you pay your advisor and firm directly for investment advice and transactions. | Shows the total cost of investing — including what you pay indirectly through fund management and operating expenses. |
Covers | Commissions, trailing fees, sales charges, redemption or transaction fees. | Everything to the left, plus fund expenses such as the Management Expense Ratio (MER), Trading Expense Ratio (TER), and insurance or segregated fund costs. |
View provided | A partial view: focused on advice and transaction fees. | A complete picture: advice + product costs in one annual report. |
Disclosure format | Dollar-based total for advisor/firm compensation. | Dollar-based total for all ongoing costs, plus a Fund Expense Ratio (FER) for each investment. |
Effective date | Introduced in 2016 under the Client Relationship Model Phase 2 (CRM2) rules. | Applies January 1, 2026; investors receive first TCR statements in early 2027 for the 2026 calendar year. |
TCR is a natural next step in Canada’s investor empowerment evolution. With the reporting requirement coming into effect on January 1, 2026, your first comprehensive cost summary will appear in your 2026 year-end statement, delivered in early 2027.
In the meantime, review your current investment statements and ask your advisor what embedded costs you’ve paid historically. Then, discuss how these new disclosures will appear and how you’ll interpret them in keeping with your personal goals (i.e., retirement income, business succession, legacy).
The arrival of TCR marks a meaningful step toward greater transparency in investment costs. You can turn this into a strategic advantage with you and your advisor working together to assess cost vs value. But keep in mind, lowest cost does not equal best value; advice, service, and long-term strategy still matter.
If you’d like to know more about TCR and what to expect, please don’t hesitate to reach out; I’d be happy to walk you through it.
The Advisor and Manulife Wealth Inc. ("Manulife Wealth") do not make any representation that the information in any linked site is accurate and will not accept any responsibility or liability for any inaccuracies in the information not maintained by them, such as linked sites. Any opinion or advice expressed in a linked site should not be construed as the opinion or advice of the advisor or Manulife Wealth. The information in this communication is subject to change without notice.